The Grinning Blade


Book Description

For Armello’s most notorious professional scoundrel, danger lurks around every corner, even in the most familiar of places. In the Rat Clan, even the simplest of jobs can turn deadly, and the most steadfast of allies can turn traitor. When clan leaders orders Mercurio to negotiate a business arrangement with an elder of the rival Rabbit Clan, the rogue winds up in the middle of a war that threatens to take far more than his head. Assassins, sword fights, tavern fires… To Mercurio, it’s all just another day in the Rat Clan.




Hell's Blade


Book Description

Over a millennium ago, demons from the sixth and seventh level of Hell fought their way to the third level… the level made up of mostly soldiers from the many wars mankind had waged throughout history. There, the lower demons were stopped, but not before over a thousand escaped into an alter world to wreak havoc on the human populace. The reigning Lord of the Third Level was tasked by the Guardians of the Gates to pursue those demons, return them to Hell or leave them doomed to roam endlessly without form or substance. The demons from the third level were sorely taxed, with little to show for a millennium of fighting… until she showed up. 1LT Sarah MacLocklin is the commander of a combat medical/surgical team on her way to a fourth tour in the “Big Sand-Box”. All she wanted was to do a little hiking in Virginia to calm the nightmares from watching her friends die in her arms. She laid down in the forests of Virginia, and woke in the middle of a new nightmare not of her making. The question is not whether she is ready to stand against the demons escaped so long ago into a world of flintlocks and swords, or walk the dark corridors of Hell to the Gates of Heaven. The question is…are they ready for her?! "Hell's Blade" will take you on a roller-coaster ride through the passages of Hell, to the gates of Heaven and into a storm of demons bringing pain and horror to the inhabitants of an alter Earth.




Legends


Book Description

“A dream team . . . Legends is the rarest of the rare—an entire collection of original short novels by top fantasy writers.” —USA Today Acclaimed writer and editor Robert Silverberg gathered eleven of the finest writers in fantasy to contribute to this collection of short novels. Each of the writers was asked to write a new story based on one of his or her most famous series: from Stephen King’s opening piece set in his popular Gunslinger universe to Robert Jordan’s early look at his famed Wheel of Time saga, these stories are exceptionally well written and universally well told. Features short stories set in the worlds of . . . Stephen King’s The Dark Tower Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth Orson Scott Card’s Tales of Alvin Maker Robert Silverberg’s Majipoor Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea Tad Williams’s Memory, Sorrow and Thorn George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire Anne McCaffrey’s Pern Raymond E. Feist’s Riftwar Saga Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time “There’s enough color, vitality and bravura displays of mythmaking in this rich sampler to sate faithful fans and nurture new readers on the stuff of legends still being created.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “What is so noteworthy about this collection is the fact that all the selections are first rate.” —Booklist “An enjoyable sampler of the best high fantasy available today.” —San Francisco Chronicle




The Fallen Blade


Book Description

In the depths of night, customs officers board a galley in a harbor and overpower its guards. In the hold they find oil and silver, and a naked boy chained to the bulkhead. Stunningly beautiful but half-starved, the boy has no name. The officers break the boy's chains to rescue him, but he escapes. Venice is at the height of its power. Duke Marco commands the seas, taxes his colonies, and, like every duke before him, fears assassins better than his own. In a side chapel, Marco's thirteen-year old cousin prays for deliverance from her forced marriage. It is her bad fortune to be there when Moorish pirates break in to steal a chalice, but it is the Moors' good fortune -- they kidnap her and demand ransom from the Duke. As day dawns, Atilo, the Duke's chief assassin, prepares to kill the man who let in the pirates. Having cut the traitor's throat, he turns back, having heard a noise, and finds a stranger crouched over the dying man, drinking blood from the wound. The speed with which the boy dodges a dagger and scales a pillar stuns Atilo. And the assassin knows he has to find the boy. Not to kill him though -- because he's finally found what he thought he would never find. Someone fit to be his apprentice.




Vagrant


Book Description




The Last Shootist


Book Description

Young Gillom Rogers has just given the coup de grace to a famous gunfighter involved in a bloody saloon shootout in 1901 El Paso, Texas. After swiping J.B. Books's matched Remington pistols off his body, Gillom thinks he may be able to ride this spectacle to fame and glory as the last shootist. But Gillom is an eighteen-year-old with lots of growing up to do, and showing off his new pistols quickly gets him into a gunfight he didn't bargain for. Gillom sets out for adventure, determined to become a shootist like his hero, John Bernard Books. On his dangerous journey into manhood, he runs into yellow journalists, a New Mexican horse breaker, and a train robber. When he meets a Hispanic saloon dancer named Anel in the booming copper mining town of Bisbee, Arizona, Gillom Rogers is forced to reconsider what kind of man he really wants to be. Miles Swarthout's The Last Shootist is the sequel to one of the most famous Westerns ever written, and concludes the tale of a junior shootist's coming-of-age in a dazzling gunfight in a deadly pimp's whorehouse, as a trio of fiery teenagers ride hard into a new twentieth century.




Adventure


Book Description




The Emperor of Nihon-Ja


Book Description

The international bestselling series with over 5 million copies sold in the U.S. alone! When Horace travels to the exotic land of Nihon- Ja, it isn't long before he finds himself pulled into a battle that is not his - but one he knows in his heart he must wage. A kingdom teeters on the edge of chaos when the Nihon-Ja emperor, a defender of the common man, is forcibly overthrown, and only Horace, Will, and his Araluen companions can restore the emperor to the throne. Victory lies in the hands of an inexperienced group of fighters, and it's anybody's guess who will make the journey home to Araluen. Perfect for fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, T.H. White’s The Sword in the Stone, Christopher Paolini’s Eragon series, and George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire series.




Blade of the Ghosts


Book Description

Eighteen years old, Caina Amalas is a novice nightfighter of the Ghosts, the spies and assassins of the Emperor of Nighmar. Skilled with stealth and disguise, Caina is the unseen agent of the Emperor, working to maintain the peace and order of the Empire. When a scholar uncovers an ancient relic from the Empire's distant past, he unwittingly unearths dangerous secrets. Secrets that might destroy the Empire and kill Caina...




Another Time, Another Place


Book Description

Two young people, one white and one deemed black, products of their environment, separated by the rigid, inhumane caste system of the Jim Crow South, meet by chance, bond, and begin a forbidden relationship which nurtures and grows, even when they attempt to terminate it, knowing the potential consequences if they are discovered. As they secretly flaunt the laws and traditions of the day, they aggressively pursue their individual ambitions to escape the equally binding economic shackles. As their commitment to each other becomes stronger, they become bolder, and challenge the status quo in ways that cannot be ignored by the power structure. Their actions coupled with fate trigger unforeseen events with tragic consequences.